Chapter Text
It had been a long day in the Clinic.
Duvosian soldiers had been limping in since before dawn, demanding treatment for various wounds that ranged from trivial to mundane. In the few days after the occupation had begun, Fang had found himself overrun with injuries, complaints, and mockery.
Sandrockers had found him odd at first, some had tried to force awkward conversations, some had asked him if he was alright, but none of them had called him simple or asked if he'd been dropped on his head as a babe. At least, not to his face whilst demanding his help.
He'd had to send X away because the bird had taken to loudly and shamelessly reprimanding every idiot who thought that ridiculing him was a fun pasttime whilst waiting for stitches. It had provided some amusem*nt at first, but Fang had taken note of some of the muttering from the soldiers. If they'd locked the cat from the Civil Corps in jail, he was sure they'd do similar or worse to X. If they could catch him.
He reached into his pocket to roll his wedding band between his fingers, taking comfort from its solid presence. He'd at least been able to glean some news about Kara from the idiots on his gurneys. She'd been allowed some level of freedom, having been earmarked as a citizen of value. Someone had mentioned a jacuzzi but he'd dismissed that as rumour, what a ridiculous notion.
She'd been assigned a monitor in the form of someone called Stev, and from the amount of times this Stev had been referred to as a wet blanket, he had hope that she wasn't being mistreated.
He looked around him, a last glance making sure everything was as clean as it could be, before he took the stairs up to his bedroom. His own monitors were at the front door of the Clinic, acting as a barrier so he wouldn't get completely overwhelmed. One would stay at his elbow during treatments, ensuring he wasn't further injuring anyone, and the other stood guard, sometimes turning away soldiers who had just come 'to get a look at the mute freak and his psycho bird'.
He shuddered at the memory of that particular idiot, and hoped that Kara's guard was as effective as his had been. He imagined she'd jump at an excuse to physically assault one of the occupiers, and that could only bring about pain in the long run.
As he undressed and made his way to his bed he was struck with a pang of longing for her. He missed her voice, her warmth, her laugh.
He pulled the covers over himself and dragged a pillow to his chest, gripping it tight in an effort to keep the dull ache around his heart to a minimum.
For the first time in a long time, he was starting to feel cold.
***
Kara was feeling decidedly unamused.
'For the love of f*ck, Stev, I can find my bathroom on my own!'
The Duvosian flinched, which she couldn't help but find amusing, how was a soldier flinching at a curse word?
'I understand miss, I don't think you couldn't, but I have orders.'
She narrowed her eyes at him, a hand planted on her hip and a scowl forming on her face.
'You've already swept my house, you've confiscated every nail file and butter knife, what's the risk in letting me piss in peace?'
She found a perverse pleasure in Stev's obvious discomfort, and resolved to swear as much as she could in the coming days. It wasn't that he was particularly deserving of the treatment, as far as she could tell he was doing his best to keep her comfortable, but she was frustrated and angry and, well, he was there as a representative of all the things making her feel that way.
He backed down, allowing her to enter her own home alone. She hurried to the kitchen immediately, grabbing a packet of crackers from a cupboard and digging into it. She slid the window open by an inch, and slipped a handful of the dry snacks onto the windowsill. A gentle peck on the back of her hand was all the thanks she needed.
She'd spotted X circling her yard earlier that day, and thought it strange that he would leave Fang's side. X was fiercely protective of Fang, he wouldn't just abandon him to deal with the onslaught of injured Duvosians by himself. So she'd assumed that Fang had told him to make himself scarce, perhaps asked him to check on her.
'You can tell him I'm alright,' she whispered, 'Get him to write to me, please.'
X bobbed his head, understanding the situation enough to keep himself uncharacteristically quiet. Kara was grateful for it, the last thing she needed was to get X caught or worse.
'Miss Kara?'
'f*ck. Stay safe, X. Tell him I love him.'
She closed the window, shoved the rest of the crackers back in their cupboard, and hurried into her bathroom.
'Miss Kara?'
'f*ck sake, Stev! I don't need you to hold my hand!'
Silence reigned in response to that, and she couldn't help but chuckle to herself.
***
Stev kicked at some of the sand in the Builder's yard, trying to curb his amusem*nt at the expletives she was shouting at him through the door. In the last few days of guarding her he'd actually managed to enjoy himself.
She was certainly different company than the other soldiers, though the swearing was a marked similarity, she hadn't treated him nearly as nastily as some of his colleagues did.
The machines in her yard were providing a dull hum, the odd rattle, a clunk here and there, industrious noises against a stunning backdrop. He'd been told to expect nothing but sand, rocks, and slack-jawed imbeciles. Nobody had mentioned that the so called imbeciles had managed to grow trees in the desert, or that they had such a handle on their water supplies that, even with Duvosian tampering, nobody went thirsty.
He found himself admiring them a little. He found Kara to be a great representation of their steadfast and unwavering approach to hardships.
He was starting to wonder why he had ever held contempt for the people of Sandrock.
Kara emerged eventually, shutting the door behind her and looking around the yard suspiciously. He realised with a jolt that everything had gone quiet.
'Ah sh*t.' She muttered, hurrying to the two biggest machines on her property. She checked one, furrowed her brow, and moved over to the other, tapping gauges.
As though electrified, she ran to the other machines, hitting buttons and flipping switches, reaching the last one just as it started to hiss in protest.
'What's wrong?' He asked.
'I need water.' She stated, simply.
